SNL Scorecard: Kim Kardashian West / Halsey

When the first hosts and musical guests were announced for SNL’s Season 47, none caused anywhere near as much buzz, positive or negative, as this one. The fact that reality star/multi-billionaire Kim Kardashian, someone with little to no acting or comedic background, would host television’s most famous comedy special drew the ire of many, eliciting comparisons to other divisive hosts such as Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Paris Hilton. Even in corners of the Internet where Kim K. was more respected and less hated, I think the general consensus was confusion.

For the record, I was certainly among the skeptics. And there were times throughout the night where the skepticism was justified: the host isn’t a very good actress, and the night was a bit heavy on low-hanging Kardashian referential humor. However, there were also several times where my fears were happily proved wrong. Kim was (unsurprisingly) comfortable in front of the camera, and (somewhat surprisingly) exhibited great comedic timing and a willingness to do whatever the writers threw at her. The result was a fun, albeit uneven episode; more inconsistent than the season premiere, to be sure, but with higher highs on the whole.

Here's the sketch-by-sketch breakdown of the 2nd episode of the season:

Sketch of the Night

“Hard Seltzer”: 8/10

Words can’t describe how excited I was to see the words “a please don’t destroy video” pop up on the TV screen. These guys were some of my favorite Twitter comedians, and although much of Twitter was crying about nepotism (2/3 of the crew are sons of former SNL writers), I was delighted to hear they’d been added to the writing staff. I’m not at all surprised that their video short format translated to SNL, a la Lonely Island and Good Neighbor; this was short and sweet. Not unlike, I imagine, the sweet taste of a Desk seltzer (™). Here’s to many more digital shorts in the future!

The Good

“Monologue": 8.5/10

Wow. I don’t think I expected Kim to fail the way so many of the online masses did (I mean, she’s an “entertainer” for a reason), but this was so much better than expected. This was some of the best writing for a monologue we’ve had in a long time, and the writers clearly deserve credit for that, though I’m a little irked they saved their best for Kim freaking Kardashian. That said, credit must also go to the host herself; if her comfort in front of camera wasn’t surprising, her incredibly adept comedic timing and deadpan delivery was.

“Lotto Drawing”: 7.5/10

This was utterly ridiculous, in the best way, and felt like a 10-to-1 sketch; I’m amazed at how early in the show it aired. The somewhat weak interplay between Kenan’s and Chris’s characters prevented this from being a knockout, but man, Cecily and Kim’s robotic personalities just killed me every time; it felt like a delightful mixture of Dawn Lazarus and ‘Shonda and Vonda' (noticing a theme?).

“Weekend Update": 7.5/10

Boy, they were feeling edgy tonight, with jokes that ranged from R. Kelly to white women to ones at the host’s expense (and Colin Jost’s). Alex Moffatt’s Terry Fink might be my favorite Update character of his, which is saying something considering he does Eric Trump and Guy Who Just Bought A Boat. Heidi Gardner’s life coach was also delightfully obnoxious. All in all, a solid segment.

"The Dream Guy": 7/10

SNL is no stranger to Bachelor/Bachelorette sketches, but this was more than just a send-up of The Bachelor franchise; there was a healthy dose of the absurd involved. I want to give this a lower rating because this was so obviously a ploy to get a bunch of celebrities on TV to capitalize on the extra eyeballs this particular host was bringing. But objectively, all parties (including Kardashian herself) were really funny, and the premise of having Kyle Mooney’s dweeby “Zeke” be a contender amidst that A-list crew was hilarious.

“Ladies Night Song": 7/10

Cecily Strong, Ego Nwodim, Punkie Johnson and Kim release this banger of a club track about women who are, to quote Danny Glover, getting “too old for this shit”. It’s a trope SNL has definitely done before, but it still resonated with the audience and was a memorable bit. It was a bit harder to take Kim Kardashian as a woman aged out of this scene, since she seems like someone who absolutely would be comfortable in a nightclub still, but the joke wasn’t lost.

“Facebook Hearings Cold Open": 6/10

I was worried this might be a one-note joke dead on arrival, but it was the rare political sketch that actually got better the more it went on. Aidy’s Ted Cruz is just never not hilarious, and James Austin Johnson’s Lindsey Graham was a marked improvement from Kate McKinnon’s. Numerous timing issues from the cameras killed the flow of this sketch, which wasn’t going to be particularly memorable anyhow, but it still progressed into something decent.

“Jasmine and Aladdin": 6/10

Pete Davidson was hilarious here, and the repeated jokes about him being offended and insulted by the various slurs and insults cracked me up. But the sketch quickly devolved into Kardashian referential humor and penis jokes, and that’s where it lost its luster.

“Skims Commercial": 5.5/10

This and the lotto drawing sketch should have switched places; this felt much more on-brand with the rest of the night, and even though it was silly, not nearly as absurd. Anyway, simple enough joke, but Aristotle Athari’s brief-but-hilarious appearance, and Kenan’s inch-perfect delivery of the closing line helped make it more good than bad.

The... Less-Good

“The Switch”: 5/10

A companion piece to Aidy’s pre-taped bits with Cardi B and Lizzo, if not totally the same concept. Because of how good those were, though, I expected this to be a lot funnier than it was. The central joke was pretty funny, but ran dry quickly. What’s more, the Jenner/Kardashian crew just have no acting range, and the writing wasn’t funny or creative enough to overcome that fact.

"The People's Kourt”: 4.5/10

Again, I could have done without so much of the on-the-nose Kardashian humor. There were certainly funny moments, such as Chris Redd’s Kanye, and Pete Davidson’s Machine Gun Kelly, but this was mostly tiresome.

Musical Performances

Halsey (featuring Lindsey Buckingham): 7/10

I’ll admit, I’m not a huge fan of Halsey— the musical artist, that is. The person seems awesome! I don’t have a specific reason, other than personal preference. Her voice and her music have just never really done anything for me. That said, their first couple appearances on SNL, both as a musical guest and as a host, really impressed me, so I didn’t exactly turn up my nose at the selection, either.

Their first performance, of lead single "I am not a woman, I'm a god," was very cool visually. Her voice was pretty shaky, and to quote the great Randy Jackson “a bit pitchy, dawg” But she brought it with the closing crescendo; by the end, I was thumping along to the beat. The second performance was of the song "Darling," which I personally liked a lot more. It was much more straightforward and less theatrically interesting, true, (though her outfit was still definitely a #lewk), but it seemed to better suit their vocals. Plus, enlisting Lindsey Buckingham is never a bad option. All in all, a solid— if not her best —set from Halsey.

OVERALL SCORE: 6.63 ('Comedy Only' score: 6.51)